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? 40 MEET THE SOVIET RUSSIANS
Semitism is officially a crime. There are more than five
million Jews in the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Government
has set apart a special territory where Jews from the U. S. S. R.
or from anywhere in the world can come to live if they wish.
This is the territory of Birobidjan in the Far East. In 1934 it
became the Jewish Autonomous Region.
The nationalities of the U. S. S. R. are an integral part of the
government. The Supreme Soviet consists of two chambers, one
of which is the Soviet of Nationalities. Article 37 of the Consti-
tution of 1936 provides that both houses shall have equal rights.
Just as each state in the United States sends two representatives
to the Senate, so each nationality in the Soviet Union sends
deputies as follows: twenty-five from each of the union republics;
eleven from each autonomous republic, five from each autono-
mous region, and one from each national district.
References on Nationalities:
Fischer, Louis, "Under the Soviet Rainbow," Survey Graphic, February,
1944-
Lamont, Corliss, "The Peoples of the Soviet Union," Soviet Russia Today,
June, 1944.
Stern, Bern hard J. , "Soviet Policy on National Minorities," American
Sociological Review, June, 1944.
Williams, Albert Rhys, The Soviets, Parts 4 and 5.
Some Suggested Activities on Nationalities:
1. "In the Soviet Union there is no race problem and no feeling of na-
tional inferiority or superiority. "--George Vernadsky, A History of
Russia, p. 397.
"Of course, all the devils of nationalism, of racial pride and chauvin-
ism have not been extirpated. "--Albert Rhys Williams, The Russians,
P- 3*-
Here are two statements that indicate a difference of opinion. As a
preparation for discussion of the treatment of minorities in the
U. S. S. R. you will find it helpful to read the following:
a. The passages from which these two statements were selected.
b. Article 123 of the Soviet Constitution of 1936.
c. Any other discussion of the treatment of minorities which you
find interesting.
2. There are about 189 nationality groups in the Soviet Union.
a. Construct a circle graph showing the percentage of the people
who belong to each of the ten largest nationality groups, and the
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? MEET THE SOVIET RUSSIANS 41
total percentage belong to the remaining groups. You will
find the statistics you need in the pamphlet by Vera Dean,
entitled Russia at War.
b. Find the articles in the Constitution which deal with the rights
of nationalities, and answer the following questions in writing:
(1) What policy of the Soviet government prevents the most
numerous group from dominating the other nationalities?
(2) What political rights do the peoples of the various nation-
ality groups have?
3. You were the Jewish owner of a small shop in Hamburg, Germany.
On the eve of Hitler's rise to power you sold your shop and moved
on to Leningrad, in the Soviet Union. After you have lived there for a few
years, write a letter to a friend in Germany in which you try to per-
suade him to do as you have done.
4. In an article in the Survey Graphic for February, 1944, Louis Fischer
says, "The Soviets catalogued men not according to blood and birth,
but by class, occupations, and ideas. That is why the theory of Bol-
shevism is the extreme opposite of Fascism. " Read the article from
which this quotation is taken. Do you agree or disagree with this
statement? In what ways do the Soviets and the Nazis differ in their
treatment of subject nationalities? You will find good material in the
pamphlet by Corliss Lamont, entitled Soviet Russia versus Nazi Ger-
many. Write your conclusions in a brief paper.
5. In 1930 two white American workers in Stalingrad were irritated be-
cause an American Negro was allowed to eat in the special dining hall
for foreign technicians. They were so angry that they first insulted,
then attacked the Negro. The case was taken up by the Soviet officials,
and there were demonstrations by labor organizations throughout the
country opposing racial discrimination. The court secured proof that
the attack had been made because of race hatred, and recommended
that the two offenders be imprisoned for two years. The sentence was
later reduced to deportation and exclusion from the Soviet Union for
a period of ten years. Hold a group discussion on this case. What do
you think of the court decision? What does this case show as to the
effectiveness of the constitutional provision against racial discrimina-
tion?
6. At a recreation resort in the southern part of the Soviet Union re-
cently there were several Mohammedans among other visitors. The
chef was lazy and did not want to prepare the special food required
by the Mohammedans. Pork was slipped into the menu under the guise
of chicken. The chef was dismissed by the state authorities when this
fact was discovered.
When some small boys, at this same resort, ridiculed the Mohamme-
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? 4S MEET THE SOVIET RUSSIANS
dans at their frequent hours of prayer, they were severely reprimand-
ed, and instruction about the Mohammedan religion was given at the
local school in order to remove the cause of such behavior.
As a preparation for class discussion, prepare the following questions:
(a) What do these two stories indicate about the attitude of the U. S. S. R.
toward races and minority groups? (b) Look in the Constitution of 1936
and find the article which gives a specific statement on this question.
Summarize its provisions, (c) Discuss the treatment of minorities in
Tsarist Russia. You will find materials in the books by Pares and by
A. R. Williams, (d) Why is it particularly significant that the gov-
ernment of the Soviet Union has a constitutional provision protecting
the rights of minorities? (e) Do you think the ideas underlying this
article are being applied in all parts of the world today? Give at least
three specific examples to support your answer, (f) Have we in the
United States such a clause in our Constitution? If so, quote the clause.
7. "The establishment of the Jewish Autonomous Region, Birobidjan,
in the U. S. S. R. , marked the turning of a new page in the history of the
long-suffering Jewish people. "
Read the pamphlet from which this quotation was taken: Tenth
Anniversary Jewish Autonomous Region, May, 1944. (Obtainable at
American-Birobidjan Committee, 103 Park Ave. , New York City, 14,
N. Y. ) Emil Lengyel, in Siberia, pp. 348-357, describes this region. What
problems have Jews in this region faced? Why has the population re-
mained relatively small?
C. Economic Life
The characteristic feature in the economic life of the Soviet
Union is a planned, socialist system of society, provided for in
the Constitution, as opposed to a capitalist system. According
to Article 5, "Socialist property in the U. S. S. R. exists either in
the form of state property or in the form of cooperative and col-
lective farm property. " Article 6 states that "the land, its natural
deposits, forests, mills, factories, mines, rail, and water and air
transport, banks, post, telegraph and telephones, large state-
organized agricultural enterprises as well as municipal enter-
prises and the bulk of the dwelling-houses in the cities and in-
dustrial localities are state property. " In Article 12, it is stated
that "work is a duty and a matter of honor for every able-bodied
citizen, in accordance with the principle: 'He who does not
work, neither shall he eat. '"
Over-all socialist planning, in which the key organization is
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? MEET THE SOVIET RUSSIANS 43
the State Planning Commission, called Gosplan, is one reason
for the amazing development of the Soviet Union in the last two
decades. The aims of the Five-Year Plans were four-fold. First, the
object was to bring Russia up to the industrial standards of
the advanced capitalistic countries. As Stalin said in 1931, "We
are from fifty to one hundred years behind the advanced coun-
tries. " A second aim was to provide large-scale agricultural and
industrial production in order to develop a strong socialist
society. As a third part of this plan, the government wished to
free the country from dependence on other nations. And in the
fourth place, industrialization was necessary to fortify the Soviet
Union against war.
The practical application of science helped to carry out the
gigantic plan, which involved industry, agriculture, transporta-
tion, and, in fact, the whole way of life of the people. A Research
Institute was established in Moscow, employing over four thou-
sand experts, technicians, geologists and statisticians, whose aim
was to create a '"wasteless society. "
Three Five-Year Plans were announced, the first from 1928 to
1933, aiming to develop heavy industry and to modernize agri-
culture. The Second Plan aimed in addition to produce light
industry and some consumers' goods. And the Third Plan, which
was interrupted by the war, was to increase consumers' goods and
comforts for the people. In 1941, before the outbreak of the war,
a Fifteen-Year Plan had been announced, but this will not be at-
tempted until after the war. By the end of the First Plan, which
was accomplished in four and a half years, Russia had changed
from a primarily agricultural nation to a thoroughly industrial-
ized one. By the end of the Second Plan, the U. S. S. R. had
passed from fifth to second place in regard to total industrial
output, the United States being the only nation ahead of it.
Despite the extreme hardships upon the Russian people,
who during the first period could buy relatively few con-
sumers' goods, such as clothes, shoes, and butter, which might be
considered necessities in other countries, the citizens worked
with zeal and enthusiasm. The concerted plan for the whole
country gave them a goal, and made them feel that they were
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? 44 MEET THE SOVIET RUSSIANS
masters over the forces of nature. They saw four regions in
Soviet Asia transformed from almost waste land to thriving in-
dustrial or agricultural centers. They felt that they were play-
ing an active part in a great drama and helping to create a
"new world. "
One of the new regions which developed before the eyes of
the people was the Chelyabinsk region, east of the Urals, with its
thriving cities of Sverdlovsk, called the Chicago of the U. S. S. R. ,
and Magnitogorsk, meaning "Iron Mountain. " From 1920 to
1939 the population of Sverdlovsk grew from 70,000 to 500,000.
In the middle west of Soviet Asia, there grew up another im-
portant area, similar to the middle west in the U. S. A. , with the
cities of Novosibirsk and Omsk as centers. Novosibirsk increased
its population from 1900 to 1939 from 5,000 to 405,590. Farther
south in Central Asia, a phenomenal change took place in agri-
culture and industry. There are oil, coal, sulphur, lead, and
zinc deposits that have been discovered and developed there. By
scientific irrigation, and careful experimentation with seeds,
desert land has become fertile agricultural soil, so that this
section is the cotton belt of the Soviet Union, producing much
more cotton than in Tsarist days. Sugar beets, rice, and oranges
are also grown extensively in this region. Of recent years, too,
the kok-sagyz plant has been developed there, from which rubber
is extracted in large quantities. Tashkent, one of the oldest and
most important cities in this region, has a population of more
than 600,000 today.
The Far East, too, has developed north of Vladivostok. Here,
two important cities are Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk. The youth
of the Soviet Union, whose organizations are known as Komso-
mols, took up the challenge in 1932 of building this latter city,
and literally hewed it from dense forests and overgrown swamp-
land. From 1939 to 1944 this city grew from 70,000 to 300,000
people, and it is an important center, not only for shipbuild-
ing and the steel industry, but a focal point for rail and water
transportation.
Due to the great distances within the country, transportation
is one of the most difficult problems of the U. S. S. R. Although
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?
MEET THE SOVIET RUSSIANS 45
present planning calls for much more building of railroads, and
although the mileage was increased by 50% from 1913 to 1940,
there is still a serious shortage of rail lines and railroad cars.
The mileage is very low, the Soviet Union having one-fifth the
railway mileage of the U. S. A. Most of the trackage, too, is still
located in Soviet Europe, and there are sections of the
U. S. S. R. where there is no railroad transportation for a distance
of hundreds of miles. Good roads are also relatively scarce in
the country. It is easy to understand why, with lack of good
rail and road transportation, the U. S. S. R. has taken great in-
terest in air transportation. Across Arctic and wooded areas,
where no other method of transportation is easily used, air-
planes are of especial value. The Soviet Union in 1932 was
eighteenth in the world in air transport; by 1938, the country
was ninth in this respect. As part of the transportation develop-
ment, many canals have been dug connecting rivers or inland
waterways with seas, thus making a continuous water route
through the country. The Stalin Canal between the White and
Baltic Seas has shortened the distance between those bodies of
water by 2,160 miles. Another large canal under construction is
the Volga-Don Canal, which will connect those rivers and open
the Volga to the Black Sea.
Agriculture, too, was part of this gigantic economic scheme of
the Five-Year Plans. All but a fraction of the peasants, after
much opposition from wealthier peasants, known as "kulaks,"
were organized as groups on the collective farms (kolkhozes) and
on the state farms. Provision was made for individual ownership
of houses and other articles for personal use, so long as these were
not used for profit. And "the law permits the small private econo-
my of individual peasants and handicraftsmen based on their per-
sonal labor and precluding the exploitation of the labor of others. "
(Article 9 of the Constitution. ) As a result of the efficiency and
modernization of agriculture, 71 f0 of the work of tilling the land
was mechanized in 1937 as compared to 1% in 1928.
Science was applied, not only in speeding up industrial and
agricultural efficiency, but in draining the marshes, such as
the Pripet marshes in Eastern Poland; sending explorers to
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? 46
MEET THE SOVIET RUSSIANS
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? MEET THE SOVIET RUSSIANS 47
. the Arctic, and opening up a northern sea route with the aid
of ice-breakers; using airplanes to spray certain regions, thus
ridding them of malaria-carrying mosquitoes, or locusts which
damaged the crops; discovering herds of seals and guiding ships
to them by plane and in countless other ways.
Success in the tremendous economic development of the
U. S. S. R. is a result, not only of the planned economy, but also
of the attitude of the Soviet citizens, including the new motives
that they have adopted. The people have discovered that
when they work for others, they work also for themselves, and
the motto, "Each for all and all for each" has real meaning
for them. Their personal ambitions, even of criminals in jail,
are channeled into useful work for the community. With their
standard of living raised, these motives of group welfare and
social prestige impel the citizens to work with zeal, without the
motive of profit. Wendell Willkie, Eric Johnston, and other
Americans who have visited the Soviet Union recently, have com-
mented on this spirit among the people.
In the cities, the factory is the cultural and recreational cen-
ter, as the collective or state farm is in the rural areas. A differ-
ential wage scale is used, depending on the amount of work
produced in the factory; also the share of each collective farmer
varies with his output. The trade unions play an important
role in industry, administering social security benefits in each
factory, and representing the workers' interests. Women have
entered industry in greater numbers, and hold important
positions on the collective farms, particularly during the war,
with most of the men in the armed forces. As a result of
the planned economy, the standard of living has been raised
throughout the country, though it is still low as compared to
that of the more advanced industrial countries.
The industrial efficiency of the U. S. S. R. was demonstrated dur-
ing the German invasion in 1941 when production was increased,
the army supplied with necessities; the transportation system,
which was supposed to be weak, functioned well, proving a
great contrast to the inefficient transportation system in Russia
in World War I during the Tsarist regime. In addition to these
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? 48 MEET THE SOVIET RUSSIANS
proofs of efficiency, whole industrial plants, with their machinery
and workers, were transported from the invaded areas to places
of safety farther east. Today, far-reaching plans for reconstruc-
tion are being made, and as soon as areas are reconquered, these
plans are being put into effect.
References on Economic Life:
Constitution of 1936.
Williams, The Soviets, pp. 134-158; 172-188.
Mikhailov, Land of the Soviets, p. 26 to end of book.
Davies and Steiger, Soviet Asia, whole book.
Some Suggested Activities on Economic Life:
1. Make a map of the Soviet Union, naming and indicating the regions
where industry was carried on before 1917, and those which are in-
dustrialized today. Show with appropriate symbols the mineral and
agricultural resources, as well as the forested sections of the Soviet
Union. Write in the name of one important city in each industrial
region.
2. Misha, a Soviet peasant, owns his dwelling-house, a pig, and some
sheep, but the State Farm on which he works, and the machinery on
the Farm are owned by the Soviet Government. How would you answer
someone who says that private ownership has been abolished in
Russia? Write a paper citing articles from the Constitution of 1936
to show the truth or fallacy in this statement.
3. The chief product necessary for industry, lacking both in the U. S. A. and
in the U. S. S. R. , is rubber. Find out what each country has done about
this shortage and report to the class. (References for U. S. S. R. :
Mikhailov, Land of the Soviets, and Steiger and Davies, Soviet Asia. )
4. Read about the Stakhanov Movement in Williams, The Soviets, p. 220,
or in the pamphlet by Alexie Stakhanov entitled The Stakhanov Move-
ment Explained. Write a short paper about this, and show how it ex-
plains the industrial development in the U. S. S. R.
5. Look up the figures on industrial production in 1914 and 1933 in
Soviet Russia, on pages 34-35 in Mikhailov, Land of the Soviets, and
make two circle graphs showing how the Soviet Union has increased
her proportion in relation to other countries.
6. Cite from Chapter I of the Constitution the article explaining the atti-
tude of the State toward people who work. Be ready to discuss this
article in class, explaining how it is carried out. Consider whether the
attitude toward useful work has changed since 1917, and give ex-
amples from the events of 1917-1920 to support your discussion.
7. Imagine yourself a worker in a factory in the U. S. S. R. You have a
cousin who came to the U. S. A. twenty years ago, and he is employed
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? MEET THE SOVIET RUSSIANS 49
in a local factory. Write a letter to your cousin comparing the two
systems of management and the workers' relation to them.
8. Arrange for a showing of the films entitled '"Harvest Festival" and
"Impressions of Moscow. " (See Brandon Film catalogue. ) After the
films have been shown, have a class discussion about the modern farmer
and the industrial worker in the Soviet Union.
9. 19OO 1939 NAME OF TOWN
5,000 405,590 Novosibirsk
6,000 500,000 Sverdlovsk
o 70,000 Komsomolsk
Draw figures of men proportionate to the size of these populations in
1900 and 1939. Prepare a statement for the class explaining why each
of these particular cities grew with such rapidity. (See Survey Graphic,
February, 1944. )
10. Was the Stalin Canal as long, as costly, or as difficult to build as the
Erie, the Panama, or the Suez Canals? Find the important facts con-
cerning these canals, and draw a bar graph showing the mileage of
each and cost of building.
11. Read in the Survey Graphic for February, 1944, the article on the
Soviet Far East. Make a report to the class on this.
12. How would your father's business, or the business in which your
father is employed, be conducted in the Soviet Union? Make a chart
comparing such a business in the U. S. A. and the U. S. S. R. as regards:
profits, management, inventions, employer, trade unions.
13. "The pioneer movement in the U. S. A. westward is similar to the east-
ward expansion of the U. S. S. R. In fact, Siberia is sometimes called
'Russia's middle west. '"
Write a paper giving examples from American and Russian history to
illustrate this statement. Name regions developed in each migration.
For reference, read Pares, Russia and the Peace, Chapter 2o, and Hindus,
Russia and Japan, Chapters 8, 9, and 10.
14. Walter Duranty in an article in the magazine section of the New
York Times for July 30, 1944, stated:
"Three years of war have clearly and tremendously hastened and em-
phasized Russia's progression toward nationalism and patriotic unity,
and its apparent retrogression from the original principles of com-
munism or Marxist socialism. " In another part of the same article,
Mr. Duranty says: '"Russia has definitely, if not Wholly successfully,
adopted a socialist or collective system. "
Read the whole article from which these quotations are taken, and
write an explanation of the apparent contradictions in these two state-
ments.
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? 50 MEET THE SOVIET RUSSIANS
D. Provision for Social Welfare
Article 120 of the Constitution of 1936 provides for free medi-
cal services for the working people. Practically all nurses and
doctors are civil servants. Special provisions of the labor code
protect women workers, and special grants are made for the care
of mother and child. Social insurance is provided for in Article
120. It includes compensation because of illness or injury, and
provision for old-age pensions. Funds are set aside by the en-
terprise where the worker is employed, and are not built up
by deductions from wages or salaries. These funds are admin-
istered by the trade unions. Group and individual insurance
to cover other hazards may be bought. Rest homes are provided
where workers may rest under medical supervision, although
the number of these is not yet adequate to serve all workers.